>Writing, or how to make balloon animals

>A productive week so far: 8,000 words laid down for the new novel I talked about in this post. I’m working from a pretty tight outline, but even so it’s a buzz to be writing the real words. However good it may be, an outline’s like a limp balloon. It’s not something you’d ever want to take to a party. Writing the real words is the equivalent of pumping the thing up. Then maybe pumping up another one and tying the two together. And then maybe attaching some more. Before you know it, you’ve made a giraffe. With luck, it’s not just full of hot air …